Rhinos move top after Celtic triumph

Leeds recorded another big engage Super League win as they inflicted a 68-0 defeat on Welsh outfit Celtic Crusaders at Newport and moved top of the engage Super League.

Crusaders captain Jace Van Dijk was one of six players to be deported from the country by the UK Visa Agency and that could not have come at a worse time for the Super League's basement team.

By half-time, the match was over as the Rhinos romped to a 34-0 lead via seven tries and three Kevin Sinfield conversions.

The Crusaders battled as hard as they could but made only rare inroads to within range of the Leeds line.

It did not help that the Welshmen made handling errors, left gaps in defence and were just too slow to react to the attacks from the world champions.

Scrum-half Rob Burrow was a threat for the Rhinos throughout the first half and gave the simplest of tries to his team with neat grubber kicks into the danger zone which were exploited with relish.

Centre Keith Senior grabbed the first of the seven touchdowns after four minutes and added another on 27 minutes. Wingers Ryan Hall and Scott Donald plus full-back Brent Webb also grabbed tries between Senior's scores.

Prop Jamie Peacock charged over to make it six tries before Webb again made the Crusaders pay from one of those little Burrows kicks, then Webb got another.

The Crusaders held their own for the first 20 minutes after the break but it was not to last. Peacock got a touchdown, followed quickly by scrum-half Burrow in the moments before the hour mark.

Webb got his third soon afterwards, which took Leeds over the half-century mark. The visitors finished with a flourish as well when Jamie Jones Buchanan, Matt Diskin and Webb, with his fourth, all touched down.